The Swiss National Bank has a USD swaps facility with The Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
On behalf of a Swiss investment bank following a request, the SNB effectively applied for $200M-worth of dollars on Aug. 10 and the amount was redeemed at a rate of 1.08%, Aug. 18.
UBS said it didn’t apply for the dollars.
So we know it wasn’t the recipient.
We don’t know who was (yet) as SNB isn’t saying.
One experienced head in this parish told me the matter hits sentiment mostly – $200M is immaterial, systemically speaking.
And it might some indicate scarcity of USDs, with SNB perhaps not wanting to disburse its own reserves [especially right now – when it’s in an interventionist phase].
 
ThSM